


Unseen Legacy

by K_Hanna_Korossy



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-17 08:16:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5861137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/K_Hanna_Korossy/pseuds/K_Hanna_Korossy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tag to "Sight Unseen," sort of. And "Legacy." Daniel finds something happened while he was gone that he needs an explanation for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unseen Legacy

First published in  _Redemption 8_ (2009)

 

A lot had happened while he’d been gone.

Daniel Jackson clicked shut one mission file and opened the next with a sigh, skimming contents before he read in detail. A year was a long time to lose. One of his old archaeology mentors had died of cancer. A fellow student had gotten married, as had a friend at the SGC, and two others had had a child. Political events, natural disasters, scientific findings had come and gone. And SG-1 had continued without him.

Jonas Quinn: his name was all over the mission reports, and Daniel wasn’t even sure yet what he felt about the man he’d barely known. _Not_ his replacement, Jack had said adamantly, but however the others had looked at it, the fact remained that Jonas had gone on all those missions with Daniel’s team, and he hadn’t.

And what missions they’d been. A real Ancient had been discovered in the ice in Antarctica, and had died before they could learn much from her. Jack had nearly died then, too, only his implantation with a Tok’ra saving his life. The Tok’ra then hijacked him and got him captured by Baal, and Jack did die then, repeatedly tortured to death by Baal. Supposedly, Daniel had been there for that one in ascended form, although he didn’t remember a thing. A Goa’uld conspiracy on Earth had been uncovered, a replacement for symbiotes found, and a new evolution of replicators defeated. His friends—his planet—had nearly been exterminated several times, and he’d missed it all. And there were still a dozen or so mission reports left to read. Chewing on his lip in dread of what would come next, Daniel started reading.

And his jaw slowly dropped.

 

“SG-1, you have a go.”

Hammond gave them a nod, then gathered his papers and walked out of the briefing room. Sam fleetingly smiled at them before following him out, Teal’c close on her heels. They had two hours before their mission to P3X-289, and he would most likely use the opportunity to get some Kel’noreem time in before they had to go, if Jack knew his friend. Carter probably had some gadget to check up on, and Daniel, lagging behind as usual…

“Hey, you wanna grab a bite before we go?” They hadn’t talked enough since Daniel’s, well, descent back to humanity, and Jack needed to make more of an effort to ease the return. There were still some memory issues, some fitting-in details, and a lot of history to work through, and one thing Daniel’s non-death had taught Jack was a new appreciation for the friend he’d come to take for granted. That wouldn’t happen again, he had vowed. Never.

“No, I, uh…I’ve got a lot to do before we go.” Daniel didn’t even glance up at him, just picked up his notebook and headed for the door.

Jack frowned. Mr. Sensitivity he wasn’t, but he did know Daniel pretty well, and ascension/descension hadn’t changed that. Downcast eyes, flimsy excuse, hurry to leave: those were symptoms of an unhappy archaeologist. “Anything wrong?” Jack asked conversationally as he double-timed it to keep pace.

“No.” The answer was clipped. “Why should it be?”

Jack tilted his head. “You tell me.”

Flashing eyes abruptly met his. “Would you believe me if I did?” Daniel asked bitterly, then, flushing, turned to go again.

Well, that had just set a new record for going badly, even for him. Believe him? As if Jack wouldn’t believe Daniel if the man announced the earth was really flat. Jack set his jaw and moved swiftly to head off the departing civilian, stepping squarely into his path. Even as Daniel started to swerve around him, Jack shifted again and put up a warning finger. “Ah!”

“Jack—”

“Not until you tell me what’s going on. Call me crazy, but I feel better when no one on my team wants to see me dead more than the natives do.”

“Oh, so now you want to talk? What about hockey and beer solving every problem, Jack?”

“No beer on the base and no games on today. Quit dodging the question.”

“P9X-391.”

Jack’s eyebrows rose. “Excuse me?”

Daniel crossed his arms. “You asked me what’s wrong. P9X-391.”

“You know I never remember those alphabet soup names, Daniel,” Jack said, exasperated. “Cut to the chase.”

“Okay, try this: the team comes back from a mission, and shortly thereafter the team civilian starts seeing things, things nobody else sees. It turns out to be the influence of an alien device, but they only realize that after questioning his sanity. Sound familiar?”

Jack sighed tiredly. He’d really thought they were past this, but maybe Daniel’s memory had only now coughed up that nightmare. “I know, we let you down on that one, Daniel, I’m sorry. We did everything we could to keep you out of that hospital, but—”

“I’m not talking about Ma’chello’s device and me, Jack.” Daniel had gone disconcertingly calm. “I meant Jonas and the bugs from the other dimension. Remember? I don’t blame you for getting them confused, the situations were pretty similar, but there’re some small differences. Like that after Jonas drew his _gun_ on something no one else could see, instead of ordering a mental exam, Hammond put the base on alert and did three sweeps looking for intruders just on his word. When that didn’t turn up anything, you all thought Jonas was just suffering from _stress._ Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think the word schizophrenia ever came up, did it?”

Jack winced. What a lousy connection to make, and just a few weeks after his return. “Daniel—”

“No, I’m just curious—did Jonas ever see MacKenzie? Or get sedated? Was he stuck in a straitjacket and locked up in a padded room, or was that just me, Jack?”

“There wasn’t time,” Jack said pointedly. “By the time it would’ve gotten that far, other people were seeing the bugs, too.”

“It didn’t take long for me, either. I was diagnosed and shipped out in, what, a day?” There was hurt in Daniel’s voice, deep and guarded. Jack wanted to say something to try to fix it, but Daniel was already flipping feverishly through a file in his hands. “Let me read you something, Jack—this is from Jonas’ report. He says Sam told him, ‘You’re part of the team now—we should never have doubted you.’” He looked up at Jack. “So you tell me, how am I supposed to take this?”

Jack met his eyes squarely. “How _are_ you taking it, Daniel? You think we cut Jonas a break because we believe him more than we did you? Or maybe you think we just like him better?”

“I—what?” Surprise replaced the anger, then confusion. “No, that’s not…” Daniel trailed off, nonplussed.

Jack took a breath. Daniel was still relearning his place there, at the SGC, among his friends. Sometimes it was easy to forget that, especially when he acted and sounded completely like the old Daniel. Not that the old Daniel had always known his worth, either, and that was something else Jack vowed would be different in this second chance. He continued very seriously and gently, “But maybe the truth is, we learned something from what happened to you to make sure it never happened again.”

Daniel hadn’t been expecting that. The anger had completely faded, the hurt faltering.

Jack pressed on. “You remember what I told you a few weeks after Ma’chello’s little surprise? I said, never again, Daniel. You were gone before we could do a thing about it, and then you were back before we could finish getting you out, but seeing you in that place…” He opened his mouth, shut it again, shook his head. “It wasn’t going to happen again, not with me around, not to my team. So what we did with Jonas, Daniel, that was because of you. And if you’d’ve been here instead of him, it wouldn’t have gone even that far, but, you know,” he shrugged, “new guy.”

The hurt had turned to a restless embarrassment.

Well, that was a good thing, right? Jack studied his friend. He’d just answered a question, not made an old wound disappear, but maybe one would eventually lead to the other. At least Daniel had relaxed out of his defensive posture, and Jack shifted into a more casual pose in response. “So, uh, we good?” he asked casually. Embarrassment hadn’t exactly been his goal, either; it was time to put Daniel at ease and get them both back on comfortable ground. The guy had been spooked enough for one day, and Jack had his limits, too.

“Oh.” A classic Daniel fidget with glasses. “Yeah. We’re good.”

Jack nearly smiled, seeing again the friend he knew in the sometimes still-unfamiliar man before him. His question had been answered even without the spoken words. “You sure? No more missions you were wondering about?”

“Well, now that you mention it—”

“The Maybourne thing, that was not my idea.”

“What—?”            

“And Baal’s slave girl, that was the Tok’ra snake, not me.”

“Riiight.”

“So,” Jack clapped his hands together, “anything else?”

Daniel gave him a suspicious glance but shook his head. “No. I think I’ve got the important part.”

Jack smiled softly at him. “Bet on it.” A beat, and a waggled eyebrow. “Then…lunch?”

Daniel shrugged and fell into step beside him. “Okay. There’s still a lot to catch up on.”

Jack dropped an arm around his shoulder and, oh, God, the simple action felt really good. “Oh, yeah. There sure is.”

The End


End file.
